Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : School District Votes to Keep Blood-Drive Ban

Even after intense lobbying from the American Red Cross, the Antelope Valley Union High School District voted Wednesday to continue a ban on blood drives at area high schools.

Red Cross officials warned that blood supplies in the area were getting low, but board members, who voted 3 to 2 to keep the ban, said they feared the district could be held liable for any injuries sustained during blood drives on campuses.

The district is the only one of the 67 in Los Angeles County to ban blood donations in high schools.

The ban was implemented in January, 1994, after a 17-year-old student fainted as a result of giving blood at a campus drive.

Anyone 17 years or older may give blood without parental consent, but in the wake of a complaint filed by the student’s mother, the board took action to avoid a possible lawsuit.

Red Cross representatives, who were not at the Wednesday meeting, made their case before the board last month. They told the board that their Southern California regional office, which serves Los Angeles and Orange counties, has reported a drastic reduction in blood donations in comparison with this time last year.

Cindy Cooper, a field representative for the Red Cross in the Antelope Valley said Thursday that the organization is now importing 40% of its blood from other states.

Red Cross officials suggested the district could help protect itself from liability by having parents sign a consent form, but some board members said they felt this would not shield the district.

“I don’t see that a permission form releases the school district from liability,” said board member Tony Welch. “It can be signed by anybody.”

Robert Girolamo, schools superintendent, who has maintained that the district should continue the ban, said students who wanted to give blood could do so at off-campus drives.

Emily Mark, 17, a senior at Quartz Hill High School who helped coordinate last year’s blood drive there, told the board Wednesday that off-campus drives are not an adequate satisfactory solution.

“I would encourage the board to reconsider because of the lives that may be saved,” Emily said. “Participation would be much greater if it is conducted during school hours.”

Red Cross officials said they would not give up the fight to reinstate the campus blood drives.

“We are going to keep lobbying, because at this point we can’t afford not to,” said Cooper, who said she expected the board’s decision. The 600 pints of blood the Red Cross used to collect per year from the five high schools in the district could save the lives of 2,400 people, she said.